[Flashback] Body Language (Reaver)

[Rayage]

The nuit had heard everything said, surprisingly he laughed at Reavers little comment on his grand ability of remembering names. Sure his memory was excellent but names just wasn't one of his strong points. Perhaps he should put them more in priority, but then again everyone had weaknesses and that was one of his. Names of things usually escaped him unless he named them himself. Quite a predicament, but memory can be trained and built upon, that was a good thing. "Reaver..." he started "Alchemy is the name of my art." he laughed, "But your art sounds interesting enough. So, you use souls to animate objects." He nodded thinking how that could give advantage to anyone to create something truly intelligent. "Your research isnt boring. No, it could increase the quality of life for nuits everywhere. Maybe I should dabble in making the bodies more durable, but..." He broke up as if his own thoughts overwhelmed him. He just stood there for a minute perfectly still before coming as if back from the grave, moving again a hand to his forehead and began to finish his sentence, " First comes the modification of the already living, because I can get their bodies more durable I can inhabit one thus making my own more so." He found nothing wrong at all killing or finding a body for his continued existence. "Half-lives are a problem, and at my current skill level they wont last very long." he frowned at all before looking at the opened up body on the table before him, "Its amazing to think that magic could do that." Unknowing much of human anatomy, though he did know that this wasnt normal, and according to Reaver it wasnt. The power of Alchemy is sublime and a force to be respected, along, of course, with those who wielded change itself. "Evil..." He sighed reflecting on the others words. Were they evil? No, he shook the thoughts aside. They were completing their dreams, and if accomplishment of such is evil, then what is good? Personally good or evil doesn't exist in his mind. Good and evil are human concepts, and he was no longer human. "If you do succeed,' He looked at him. "Be sure to get a message to me, if I am not there to witness it myself."

[Reaver]

"Alchemy is the name of my art." Reaver replied with shrug. "Oh, right, is it? What was mine then, Animation? I'll blame fate. Very similar words." He paused only a moment before continuing. "I should clear it up, though. I don't use souls, no, I make fake ones. Very, time consuming."

"If you do succeed... Be sure to get a message to me, if I am not there to witness it myself." "If I do succeed, I'll be quite sure everyone will hear about it." Reaver will pull out a note from somewhere under some gauze and write something down. Having done so, he'll start packing up his equipment. "It was interesting to see the results of your work. Would you like to see my art in action?"

Reaver didn't wait for an answer before beginning to pull out the lock he made earlier. It was a simple lock, but had a thin strap of leather attached to it. Reaver held it against the wall, in its locked position. "It is a fun art to play with." He knocked on the wall next to it: twice quickly, waited a second, then again. The lock unlocked on its own, then a second later, locked again. Reaver pulled out the key, and unlocked it himself. Once again, a second later, it locked again, key still in the lock. "It is much harder to break into a house when the lock likes to lock itself. Unlike your art, however, mine lasts as long as the physical shell remains intact. This lock could last longer then I will with proper care."

[Rayage]

Rayage smiled as the other apologized to him. It was a simple slip of tongue and he was sure everyone did it, and so therefor it wasn’t anything too major. It could be easily forgiven. He nodded ”So even better, you make souls.” he didn’t add the word fake in there because a soul, to him, was a soul. Manmade or otherwise isn’t a soul still a soul, so why should Reavers be called fake if they are indeed souls? Are there properties about them that make them less efficient than ‘real’ souls? The way Rayage sees it is a ‘fake sword’ that can still cut, can still kill, can still be a sword in all means is still a sword despite what it is made out of. He listened some more and just nodded at the question asked of him. To see a work of some Animator would be quite splendid. Though his nod was unseen because the nuit was so eager to show off that he didn’t even wait for an answer and just pulled out an average looking lock, but that was just pride showing. Pride of ones work and pride of ones actions; everyone should have pride, and this trait he admired most of all. Pride is the bringer of action, and with it tags along reaction, and therefore the continuance of time, of motion, and of the universe that they know it. He nodded again and looked at the lock as it was demonstrated. Interesting, ”Can you animate just about anything then?” he asked. In this art was so many possibilities. Yes, he could see them and he sure hoped his friend could as well, but being a practitioner of such an art he bet that the nuit knew more than most the repercussions of the art, and what was practical to make, and what wasn’t. ”Say like a suit of armor.” he smiled at his suggestion, but it wasn’t his fault. Magic seemed to be the only sort of happiness that he got, or rather the only source of happiness for him. ”Because I think that would be quite a feat.” he laughed thinking of it, though not knowing of the art he didn’t really know if it were possible or not. ”You say they last until the physical shell is destroyed. Does it have to be the entire shell or just most of it?” these all were important details that he was curious to, but not practicing the art he had no business knowing.

[Reaver]

Reaver did his best to set the distinction apart. "Think of my fake souls as... copying a painting. The better you get at it, the harder it is to tell the two apart." ”You say they last until the physical shell is destroyed. Does it have to be the entire shell or just most of it?” Reaver waited for all the questions to be forwarded before replying. After giving it some thought, he replied carefully. "I can only animate things that have the capability of moving. A suit of armor would need to be welded together in some fashion first. Even then, I could only move the parts that could be moved. If it doesn't bend or shift easily, it will not animate easily. A sword, for example, could not be animated to do anything. To answer the next question, I'm not entirely sure. I would imagine just the parts that are important to it, actually. The damage may be similar to that of a living entity. I have yet to animate anything of decent size to find out. My other research has taken priority lately."

OOCBlah, need more sleep to make better posts. It'll do for now.

[Rayage]

Ray carefully thought about all the information he was given, nothing seemed to be answered greatly, and so he wondered exactly how much experience this animator really had. He nodded at Reaver and smiled, ”Well that was enlightening.” and it was, to a point. ”Exactly how long did it take for you to animate that lock of yours? What do you plan to use it for?” he asked wondering it the man took it here just to show off. If so that would be a strike on his character, but there was always the slightest chance that it was a mistake, and brought here by accident. How convenient. He made some sort of snorting noise as he looked away and walked out of the room, opening the door and back into the main laboratory. ”You know,” he started, his voice transparent as if what he said had no real meaning, ”sometimes I think how I can keep this up.” he looked around the lab, it was unclear if he was talking to himself or to the other present with him. A silence would fall and he would turn and face the door, his foot resting on the edge of his alchemy circle, ”Do you think you could show off your skills right now?” he asked with a brief smile, a flash of rotting teeth, something that said this next request would be of no good, ”I mean,” he gestured to the body that was in the other room, and if the other stayed in the room and was watching him, or if he followed him out it would all be the same, ”could you close her up, and animate her?” he asked his gruesome question, serious this time, ”You said you could animate things that can move, she could move, and can move with a soul in her. I don’t see a difference between a body and an object, do you?” he challenged Reaver to correct his failure, ”Or is that yet beyond your skill?” He asked. This was going to be interesting, and he wondered how the other would respond to his challenge. He knew he had to be repeating himself, but he wanted to see if it could really be done. If it could, well he wondered if his failure transmutations could be turned into something useful after all. He stood there silently wondering how the other would respond to him suddenly putting him on the spot. Interesting indeed.

[Reaver]

"The lock, it took several hours. Somewhere between two and three. And to answer your next question, I thought it would make a charming gift to someone who enjoys being secretive." Reaver would offer the lock forth, should he look his direction at that point. Beyond that, he'd wait for it to be mentioned again. "”sometimes I think how I can keep this up.” Reaver almost snorted before giving his retort. "Reinforcing it tends to help. A building like this would probably do well with some strong wood holding it up." He did what he could to hide that he thought it was funny, maybe Reaver could get away with it. The hinge would be how serious the other would think Reaver was.

”could you close her up, and animate her?” ”Or is that yet beyond your skill?” Reaver needed little time to answer back. "It is a simple matter to make her MOVE. I would have no need to close her back up, either. To make her resemble a living entity, that could take years." Reaver then gave a short shrug as he continued. "Even if I was better at the art." Reaver wasn't fond of the impending stare he was likely to get, so he thought to break the impending silence with a bit more information. "It's a matter of how long one spends on it, and one's ability to focus. Like training a child of four to recite the dictionary. Every action it needs to preform must be taught, one at a time." Reaver will look to the girl, as if pondering how to make it move. "It helps to have practice put in place beforehand. I suppose I could make it do something simple, if you had the time..." Reaver glanced around the crowded rooms scrunched up before him. "And didn't mind me making some room."

[Rayage]

All Ray could do was smile when he heard the words ‘it would make a charming gift to someone who enjoys being secretive’. Though he wouldn’t offer his smile back, or even look. It was an almost secret thing and one that he took some pleasure in hiding. Silly, irrational, but he didn’t want to be known as someone easily swayed by words or gestures of kindness. Although the lock, he was sure, could be put to good use here. He would simply nod and with that his smile would vanish again for he wasn’t amused by the next thing that he would hear. Though despite his not showing it, that was a good comment, but not worth his time or energy to answer. Facing him when the nuit began to explain himself he silently nodded absorbing everything that was told to him. When the other finished he cracked another god-awful smile, ”I have time.” he said as if openly inviting him to try to do his job, his art, or so he called it. This would indeed be interesting and he soon turned his back on the nuit and went to his desk quickly grabbing a quill, some ink, and some parchment, ”How big of a space do you need cleared?” he would ask as he was gathering the items. He would allow the other to move anything he needed, but he would prefer it to stay in the other room so his alchemy circle wouldn’t be tampered with, ”Surely the room that you are in would suit the job?” he asked uncertain of the answer, but he hoped it would with a little rearranging. Now with his tools of observation gathered he walked slowly to the door to the other room giving a slight glance at the lock, but then at the girl. He wanted to see this magic in action, and he was sure he had all the time in the world. He was undead, and what better things did he have to do but learn and keep himself busy? In fact, he felt a little happy for the magical demonstration. It was something he knew almost nothing about, and he was eager to learn about it. Crossing his arms he awaited the reply. He had lots of time and so did the other. To see the dead move again, that was indeed a godly power, and no matter how much time it took he was sure he was going to be impressed. This mage hasn’t failed yet. With the void from the time before and now animation, this one was sure a person to keep around. He had no regrets for allowing him to stay within his lab, no, not one. It has turned out to be quite an interesting encounter if he didn’t say so himself. Well worth his time and energy. He nodded wondering what was going to happen next, and this wondering, this anticipation that was building brought him back to times where he was still a young student in Alchemy; always thinking of what could be done, and struck in awe by his teachers work.

[Reaver]

”How big of a space do you need cleared? Surely the room that you are in would suit the job?” "Enough room for two more circles. One in each room may work fine, would your circle there work fine with another drawn around it?" The other Nuit seamed to have no problem with the idea. Reaver began drawing his circles, using the ink he brought with him. He attached short strips of gauze to the floor where he needed to ark over the alchemy circle. He took his time, making careful note of where he would put what, and following a small slip of paper he had brought with him. After about ten minutes of careful work, he finished his circle. He was swift to move over to the smaller room. In there, he sat the body in the middle, and drew around it. He had to mop up some of the mess around it to continue a few times, and put some extra effort into preventing the mess from spreading over his work. It went faster, but not by much.

"Convincing it to speak is out of the question with the damage it has taken to it's throat. It won't be able to respond to the outside stimuli at this point, so whatever it does do, it'll do constantly. I might be able to make it hear something, but that would be based on luck at this point. Any preference as to what it will do?" With his question, he seamed to finish his next circle. He then made a gauze strip line to connect the two circles, and drew a line over it. "I'm going to need to buy more ink, I think." Reaver will put something in the way of the door, as to not let it close during the process. He then sat down in the circle he drew around the animation circle. He contemplated what it was the other Nuit had asked of him.

"Interesting. Perhaps a basic walk would do the trick. Like walk in a programmed direction and pace back and forth. Creepy, but if anyone would stumble upon the room it will make them think twice before entering" "That's a full day or two project, could you walk if you had no head? No balance? I suspect not. Would a crawl work? I should be able to do crawling quite a touch faster." "A crawl would work." Satisfied with his project, he began. He pulled a needle from his things, and struck it against his thumb. The ichor barely made it out before Reaver brought it to the circle. He focused, but the first step didn't take long. He practiced, he knew it worked, and he swiftly had his Soulcore molded after his own soul. It took some tweaking, but he got it in place soon enough. "So you know, I can't focus on the outside world very well while I work on this, so I'm not going to respond until after I'm done."

NoteThe following section takes place in Reaver's mind, so he's not actually talking or moving through all of this.

Now, the hard part. I've never animated something massive before, the size of the project is going to make this difficult. Good thing I just need to make the joints move in a pattern, then reversing ever so often. Keeping things simple, it should help. Reaver focused once again, closing his eyes, and focusing on the Djed he was transmitting. "Sit." He focused on the position he had in mind, on it's hands and knees, like a kid pretending to be a lizard. The arms and legs were out from the body, and sitting even with one another. "Forward Start." He focused on the first movement it would make, moving it's right arm and left leg forward. "Forward Left." He focused on transmitting the next movement, bringing the left arm and right leg forward. "Forward Right." He redid the same motion, but reversed the left and right sides. Now it should be able to crawl by repeating those two motions. "Hold." He transmitted a half-second of time passing, where no action was taken. "Forward Move." He set up the directions he had already set in place. "Forward Start," "Forward Left," "Hold," "Forward Right." "Hold," "Forward Left," "Hold," "Forward Right." "Hold," "Forward Left," "Hold," "Forward Right." "Hold," "Forward Left," "Hold," "Forward Right." "Hold," "Forward Left," "Hold," "Forward Right." "Hold," "Sit." That takes care of forward. Reaver was careful in repeating this entire process again, using "Backward" instead of "Forward," and making the needed changes. He didn't need to adjust his "Hold" or "Sit" commands, however. "Pattern," Reaver used his built concepts to convey what it was he wanted it to do. "Sit," "Forward Move," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Backward Move," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold," "Hold." He had one more, then he was done. "Repeat," Reaver imagined doing things over and over again, similar to what he felt he was doing earlier. All he had left for his persona, was to build it's directive. "Repeat" "Pattern." Persona complete. Now, the longest part. Reaver knew what he had to do, it just took time. Reaver focused his energy, and began to build the astral body for the 'golem' he was working on. Reaver could only imagine how long it would take him if he didn't already have extensive knowledge as to how it was supposed to work. Even though it was his first time building an astral body for a humanoid, it almost felt natural for him. He hit some minor dead-ends and nit-picks from the alterations he didn't know about before, but he was smart enough to work through them, or around them. He lost track of time, everything felt like it was flying by, though in actuality it was taking quite a while. Eventually, though, he had finished his project.

Finally satisfied with his work, Reaver broke the flow of Djed. The golem was quick to start moving. As it moved to it's "Sit" position, it knocked itself over right onto it's back. It seamed to be making all the motions just fine, but on it's back, it was impossible to tell.

NoteIf it worked, it would move forward eleven steps, a half-second between each, move to it's "Sit" position for three seconds, move backwards eleven steps, move to it's "Sit" position for three seconds, and repeat the process from there. I'm not sure If I'm actually capable of making it strong enough to carry itself, however. So if you flipped it over, it might just not have the strength to move, and flail around trying to do what it was told to. The main doubt comes from the size of the target, it isn't exactly 'human-sized,' but it isn't small either.

[Rayage]

The nuit watched him and with that answered the various questions that were asked of him while the process was taking place. He stood back to be sure he was out of the way, the shadows of the corners almost enveloping him for the candle light that was used to light the place didn’t quite reach as far as one would like. The effect leaving gloomy looking shadows, but what more could be expected from a place where ‘dark’ practices were commonly held for the greater good, and in the name of advancement? There was no greater place for secret magical research, and his little hidden lab was almost perfect. He looked on with keen eyes, watching how the nuit drew the circles so. They didn’t seem that complex, but then, in world magic, there is meaning behind everything. Nothing is done just to be done, no that would be a waste of time, a waste of space, and, quite frankly, a waste of energy. Everything had a purpose, and the same held true for the various additions of world magic he has witnessed over the years. Everything was cause and effect, and something with a useless cause will have a useless effect or no effect at all. The former being favorable, because failure, true failure comes when nothing happens because then nothing can be gained from the experience. It would be a waste of time, but then so is striving for perfection because perfect, by definition, cannot be added to. What Ray strives for is not perfection, because that would be a waste of time when it would eventually happen, no he strives for advancement. He continued to observe this careful process and although it looked like an easy process to master, but there must be more behind it than drawing two circles and then connecting them. No, there had to be something complex about this process that he was missing. Was it all a mental process? Like what he had to do with Alchemy, did the user have to will something to happen? Though, putting a hand to his chin as he watched, there was an air of mystery as to why circles are used in world magic. Something interesting to think about indeed. Nodding he dropped his hand and watched as the other pricked his finger. Nicely done, so it takes blood, ichor in their case, also. Was it blood that connected us all? What is blood that could hold the power of forming a connection, a stronger connection, to the world around you? What was bloods secrets. That is what he wanted to find out, but that would come later, much later, right after he gets his research to completion. Now he waited, and looked at Reaver in the circle concentrating it seems, almost meditating. It looked like Reaver himself was dead, not because he is undead, but for an entirely different reason. There was something he couldn’t quite put his finger on about all of this, and although he has dabbled in many arts, summoning being one, animation was something unheard of until now. Breaking his gaze, because it was evident that this was going to take a while, he occupied himself with pacing and trying to organize his thoughts. Trying to break through what was shown to him, and understand the little parts that make up the whole of the art being demonstrated. From what he has seen there was two circles to be drawn, the mage sits in one while the other is occupied by the object being animated. The two circles are connected by something, and then the mage goes into some other state of mind or something to complete the animation. There was a big blank on what to do next. You can never fully learn something by observing, he would need an explanation also. Pacing back and forth he waited, thinking of what the blank could be filled his time as he idly wrote his observations down on the paper that was fetched from his desk. Nothing was as it seemed, always there was an air of mystery. He waited and waited and waited, running out of things to write he stopped and placed the paper down on the desk before turning as he heard a clutter of noise. The thing was animated, but it had knocked itself on its back. Looking to Reaver shrugged, ”Was it supposed to do that?” he asked as he continued to look at it. The thing seemed perfectly fine, doing some motions, but on its back it could do nothing but flail around and whatnot. He wondered, amused, how long the thing could keep this up.

[Reaver]

Reaver stood, and examined the small girl, now moving. After taking a few moments, he nodded. "It is doing what I told it to do, so yes, but the limits of it's ability to understand the world around it also means no. I told it to crawl, and it is. It just doesn't understand that it's not flipped the right way on the floor, or what a floor is." Reaver walked up to it, stretching out a hand in the way of one of the arms. The arm stopped, which seamed to slow the entire movement down. It slowly pushed Reaver's arm out of the way, then continued as if nothing happened. "I suspect it would not be strong enough to crawl. The movements I taught it were faster and stronger. If I were to guess at what went wrong, the strength of the soul I made it isn't strong enough to move the beautiful astral body I made it. Larger souls are indeed more difficult. A few weeks of practice, and I might be able to get one working at full strength, in addition to correctly. Given some resources, I might even teach it balance." Reaver continued to examine the golem.